The owners of the Binghamton-Johnson City Joint Sewage Treatment Plant, site of a 100-ft wall collapse in May, are eager to begin repairs but they first must determine if Hurricane Irene-related flooding undermined the structure's foundation.
The two south-central New York state cities, which own and operate the plant, are also dealing with a pair of engineering reports that blame construction errors and changes for the wall failure and that limit use of parts of the plant. The flooding has added to the cost of repairs but the amount can’t be estimated until they know if the building support was undermined after flooding forced the plant offline Sept. 8-11. The utility has since returned to limited operation.